Classification of Teaching Methods

Teaching is a creative art that teacher has to use many methods which can meet the learner’s needs and the demands of learning situation. There are many methods throughout the history of teaching English. It is suggested, however, in this essay three common methods, namely, Grammar-Translation, Direct Method and Communicative Language Teaching, clarified into two categories: teacher-centered and student-centered. Teacher-centered here just includes Grammar-Translation. Teacher has the authority to do most activities in the class. Most of the time the teacher lectures the learners and there is just a little interaction between the learners and the teacher and almost no interaction between students (Tetzner. R, 2004) The teacher uses mother tongue to explain lessons with little oral production of the target language. The role of teacher is to exemplify the rules, to present the rules deductively. He/ she encourages the learners’ ‘memorization and provides practice with a focus on form’ (Klapper. J, 2006). For example, the teacher is explaining a part of present tense for her students whose native speakers are Vietnamese and learn English as a second language, “my mother is a teacher → Mẹ tôi là một giáo viên. My mother là chủ từ số ít nên động từ tobe sẽ là is”. Then the teacher writes the rule on the board S + be + O. The teacher first explains then gives the rule; he/she does not give any opportunities for her student to find the rule. After that, the teacher asks his/her students to produce a new sentence based upon on the rule such as, my father is an engineer. In the example here, the teacher does most activities. Direct method and Communicative Language teaching are clarified in the student-centered. Most of activities and time are done by students. In direct method, Kalan (2012) mentions that students are asked to make a choice and get them to correct their own errors, or students learn by self-correction. Students...